Chair-seat



(No Model.)

M. `V. B. HOWE.

GHAIR SEAT.

No. 275,883. Patented Apr. 10,1883.

N. PETERS. Phnmumugnphar, wmhmgmn. D.

UNITED STATES MARTIN V. B. HOWE, OF ERVING, MASSACHUSETTS.

PATENT OFFICE.v

CHAIR-SEAT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 275,383, dated April 10, 1883.

Application filed December 16, 1882.

'following is a true and full specification.

which are tenoned together. The wood is often cross-grained, and the holes for the cane to pass through rather largeand near together. The strain upon lthe seat often splits out the frame, and in all these cases where the frame is split out the chair is entirely gone and cannot be repaired, as new holes cannot be bored back for receiving the cane.

My invention is for a frame on which the cane is to be stretched, forming a seat independent of the chair-frame, and which is to be screwed or nailed upon the chair-frame, thus completingthe chair.

The accompanying drawings illustrate my invention and form part of this specication.

Figure lis a plan showing my chair-seat. Fig. 2 is a section on line m x of Fig. 1.

Similar reference-letters indicate like parts in both figures.

My seat-frame B is made of veneers or very thin boards, preferably what is called threeply,77 or with three thicknesses of veneer, having the grain of the wood of the middle piece run at right angles to that of the piece glued on each side of it. Two-ply might do; but I prefer the three-ply, which makes the frame so strong that, though it is all together but an eighth of an inch in thickness, the cane can never split it out on account of the grain of the wood in the three pieces running across each other. The frame B of this seat can be made of any shape, or, if made square, may be easily cut to it any chair-frame desired, and

(No model.)

it can be screwed on any chair-frame with screws of any style-gilt, plated, or blued-or nailed on' with fancy nails, making a very handsomely-tinished chair, and when the caning is worn out or broken by any accident the seat can be easily and cheaply replaced by another, preserving the chair, which cannot be done with cane-seat chairs as at present constructed. Y

Another advantage ot the frame made by my invention is the saving of cane, which will be from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet to each seat. The ordinary frame of a cane-seat cha-ir being an inch or over in thickness, while mine is but one-eighth of an inch thick, I save at least seven-eighths of an inch on every slip of cane put through each holein making a seatan important item in the cost of manufacture.

Another advantage in making the frame of the seat of the crossed veneers and independent of the chair-frame is the ease and cheapness of transportation, which is an important consideration.

In chair-making it is common to have cane seats bottomed away from the factory by men and women and children at their homes or in small shops, or in charitable or reformatory institutions. The frames are sent out, the cane putin, and the seat returned. The cost of transportation is a large item of expense. As each of the ordinary chair-frames is an inch or more in thickness, and mine but one-eighth of an inch, the cost of transporting mine will be but one-eighth as much as on the present frames.

The same invention may be used,if desired, in constructing the backs of chairs to be made in cane.

I am aware of the patent of Rowe, No. 244,769, which shows and describes a chairbottom formed of a metal plate,.upon which is secured a seat of paper perforated and eyeleted, and to such I make no claim, and over which my chair-bottom has decided advantages, for the reason that a combination of wood veneers and interlaced cane, as an auX- iliary seat, forms an article possessing obviously much superior qualities to recommend it to the trade.

IOO

What I claim in the manufacture of chairs to e chair-frame, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

As an improved article of manufacture, the chairbottom described, composed of Wood MARTIN V. B. HOWE. 5 veneers, provided with a seat-opening which Witnesses:

is covered with a seat of interlaced cane strips, JAMES S. GRINNELL, seid bottom being auxiliary in its application WM. H. ALLEN. 

